Firebirth
by Human Lightshow
Summary: Something bad is going to happen, and it looks like Rouge is the only one that can stop it. But how can she stop someone so close, expecially when no one belives that the someone is evil?
1. Storybook

Disclaimer: If I owned it, I would be rich and happy and this would be a comic book not a fanfiction.  
  
A/N: I haven't been able to see much of X-Men: Evolution due to the fact that my TV doesn't get WB any more for some weird reason. We'll just pretend this is before the whole Apocalypse thing, at best.  
  
Firebirth - Chapter One  
  
A woman in a faded gray dress and a light brown leather jacket sat at the back of Bayville's main coffee shop, Sugar Brown. Even though it was winter, and even though the sun was hidden behind a group of clouds, and even though she was inside, she wore a pair of red tinted sunglasses. This and the walking cane next to her pointed to the fact that she was blind. Her brown hair with streaks of gray was pulled into a bun, some of the hair falling out and onto her shoulders. In her hands she held a blue ceramic coffee mug, wisps of steam lifting up from it. In it was Tai tea, with just the right amount of honey and sugar to the woman's taste. But not a single drop of it was touched. She looked out the window, perhaps in a daze.  
  
"Irene," said a voice near her. She did not look up. She would not be able to see who it was; that and she knew who it was already, just by the voice.  
  
"Raven," said the woman whose name was Irene Alder; better known as Destiny.   
  
Raven Darkmöle, a woman better known as Mystique to some, sat across from the blind woman.  
  
"You're getting old," Raven noted, looking at the thin strands of gray in Irene's hair.  
  
"So are you," said Irene, facing Raven even though there was nothing there for her to see, "but you are able to cover it up better then I." As she said this, Irene let a smile slide over her face like a glove would slip onto someone's hand.  
  
Raven leaned back into her chair and flashed her own pearly white teeth in a smile.   
  
"How do you look?" Irene asked suddenly, setting the cup on a small oak coffee table between the two women.   
  
Raven was a little taken aback by the question, and there was a pause. Finally, she spoke.  
  
"Like I used to," she said finally.  
  
In fact, Curly brown hair fell over her shoulders. Her skin was creamy and smooth, and her eyes seemed an odd combination of brown and yellow.  
  
"Ah," said Destiny, "you mean how you looked like when you were, say, a princess?"  
  
Raven chuckled bitterly.  
  
"A princess," she said. "Something like that." Raven looked up at Irene.   
  
"But that's all gone now, isn't it?" she asked, almost snidely.  
  
"Something big is coming," said Irene, ignoring Raven's question and the bitterness in it.  
  
"Oh?" asked Raven.  
  
"I fear for our little rouge child," said Irene. Raven's face showed a bit of discomfort before she let a mask slide over her face that betrayed no emotion. She didn't have to do it. Irene couldn't have seen it anyway; she only felt emotions from people.   
  
"What's going to happen?" asked Raven, trying to keep the curiosity and fear and worry all mixed together out of her voice.  
  
It didn't work.  
  
Irene pulled out a book from her jacket. It was made of discolored brown black leather, and had the words "Destiny's Diary: Volume Seven" inscribed on it. She handed it to Raven who took it tenderly in hand. Raven rubbed some of the dust off of it with a yellow-nailed hand.  
  
"One of your volumes of the future?" Raven asked. She didn't need an answer. She looked up to Irene, trying to figure out why she was giving the book to her.  
  
"I want you to give this to Rouge, as she goes by," Irene said, as if reading the other woman's mind.  
  
"How am I supposed to that?" Raven asked, frustration in her voice. "That child trusts me as far as she can throw me." Irene chuckled at the old cliché saying.  
  
"If there's a will, there's a way," Irene said, using an old cliché saying of her own. Raven sighed, and put the book into a denim Von Dutch purse she was carrying, and then stood.  
  
"I suspect this meeting is over?" Raven asked.  
  
"Indeed," said Irene, smiling a good bye to her old friend.   
  
A/N: Done for now!!! I guess this is more of a defult chapter then a chapter one, but oh well. ;;; Please tell me what you think! 


	2. Something Underneath A Dream

  
  
A/N: Okay, here's the next chapter. Sorry if it took me too long to write it; for a while there I had writers block and I didn't know how to continue.  
  
Firebirth: Chapter Two  
  
Rouge sat down on her black sheet bed and looked over at Kitty. She was fast asleep, still in her cloths, her lap top computer still on. Rouge shook her head. She would have gone over and turned it off for her, but she didn't know if Kitty had any important information on it that she hadn't saved yet.  
  
Rouge let out a yawn herself, and frowned. It was hot in the room, which may or may not have been due to the layers of clothing she was wearing so that her powers wouldn't hurt any one who touched her. She walked over to the window and opened it.  
  
She stood there for a while, her hands on the window still, looking out into the starry sky, thin white curtains flapping in the wind.   
  
It's so peaceful, she thought.   
  
Suddenly, a large white owl carrying a book appeared from nowhere right in front of her face.  
  
Rouge gave out a cry of surprise and stumbled backward, arms flapping about. She fell down on her back.  
  
When she sat up, the bird was perched on her windowsill. She stared at it.  
  
"What is this, an invitation to Hogwarts?" she asked finally, slowing reaching her hand out to the book that the owl was carrying, hoping that it wouldn't bite her or anything.  
  
When her fingers touched the leather book and the bird didn't doo anything, she snatched it away quickly, then shooed it out of the room. She closed the window and watched the owl fly into the night through the surprisingly clean windowpane.  
  
Finally, she looked at the book. It was faded, and it looked like someone tried to clean it.  
  
"Destiny's Diary," she read out loud. Her face suddenly went pale.   
  
"Ah, geez," she said.  
  
A tall woman named Tessa stared at her computer screen, a frown on her deep red lips, her curly back bangs falling over her pale skinned shoulders.  
  
With a sigh, she took off her red glasses, and rubbed her eyes.  
  
On her screen were the Internet findings by a man named Vargas. Pictures of a leather bound book, clippings from its pages.   
  
Tessa sighed, and wished that she could perhaps take a break at trying to decipher the code that was in The Book Of Destiny; Volume Eight (as Vargas called it). Unfortunately, she did not have many friends who could relieve her of such.  
  
Tessa worked for what was know as the Hellfire Club; more specifically, she worked for Sebastian Shaw, the Black King, and ultimately the president of sorts of the club. She was their information outlet.  
  
Tessa was a mutant. She had a mind like a computer; possibly better. A photographic memory that served her well, Tessa was indeed a computer made of flesh and blood. To put it more bluntly, Tessa could remember what she saw, and what she remembered she could analyze. Which was everything.   
  
Alas, Tessa was also considered to be a puzzle wrapped in an enigma. Not many of the other members of the Hellfire club liked her. She seemed to have the emotions of a computer also, not earning her many friends.   
  
Suddenly, and surprisingly, there was a knock at her door.  
  
I wonder who that could be? Tessa thought, getting up from her chair. Probably just Shaw wanting something from me, she answered to herself with a frown.  
  
Instead, when Tessa opened the black mahogany door she found teenage Elizabeth Braddock, known better as Betsy.   
  
The girl's older brother, superhero Captain Britain, was making a smart alliance with the Hellfire Club. Member of the splinter British Team, Captain Britain was looking to an upgrade from simply just a member to White King; a big promotion, considering.  
  
The blonde hair, blue-eyed girl looked nervously to the older woman. She wore a simple blue dress with long sleeves and a high neck.  
  
"Miss Tessa," she said, "they're serving breakfast and the Black King was wondering if you were to be joining us?"  
  
Tessa considered. She hadn't realized the time, and wasn't very hungry. On the other hand, it would give her a much-needed break from the interned reading she had been doing.  
  
"If you could just bring some herbal tea to my room…?" Tessa asked. Betsy nodded. Tessa hesitate, and then spoke again.  
  
"Will you be joining them, Betsy?"  
  
The blonde girl looked up from the floor, were she had been staring the whole time, and shook her head.  
  
"I'm not very hungry, miss," she said. Tessa smiled.  
  
"Then make you a cup too," she said, "and join me?"  
  
The girl smiled and nodded.   
  
Betsy stood there are Tessa closed the door, a little bit more happy since she had arrived to the states. In Britain, she had been quite popular among people. But here in America, she felt out of place among her brother's friends. The only person who had been in nice to her at all was Meggan; but Tessa suspected that was only because she liked her brother.  
  
Emma Frost, the White Queen, was also slightly nice to her, but Betsy was quite afraid of her. Emma was only nice to people she wanted something from; and Betsy did not like the idea of what the tall blonde woman might want from her.  
  
Betsy walked down the hallway and down the stairs to the kitchen. Tessa may be older then her, but she might be the only friend in the states until her and her brother went back home.  
  
If they went back home.  
  
Tessa was surprised that under the young girl's somewhat shy exterior, Betsy was a wonderful girl with a great personality. She seemed to be a very confidant and normal girl, not at all like she had come off as.  
  
Though it was probably best to act shy around the Hellfire members. They were horrible people, and would crush someone like Betsy was underneath.   
  
Tessa had not thought to invite the girl into her room at first. Very few had ever entered, especially not a young child such as the blonde teen. But something about Betsy was looming in Tessa's mind. Something that her computer-like memory was picking up.  
  
After the British mutant left, Tessa returned to her computer and searched though the memory banks until she found what she was looking for.  
  
Near the last page that Vargas had shown on-line of the Book Of Destiny, there was a small picture of two people fighting. One of them looked vaguely like Betsy, with purple hair and a sick look on her face. The other was Asian, with a deep crimson mark on her face. She seemed unaccustomed to her body; though how the illustration could be so detailed was beyond her.  
  
Tessa frowned, and read the passage that was under it. All that she could see was something about "the search for the Crimson Dawn". The rest would be on the next page, which Vargas had not posted online.   
  
I have to get this book, thought Tessa.  
  
And she knew just how she would.  
  
Meanwhile, Rouge was going over the book that was delivered to her window. With every page that she turned, the deep frown on her face increased. Finally, she slammed her book and went to find the Professor.  
  
Something bad is going to happen, she thought. And I'm afraid that I might be the only one who can stop it.  
  
A/N: Whee! The last chapter was a little short, so I hope this longer one makes up for it a little. Remember, Review and let me know what you think, and if I should add anything. 


	3. Nightmares and Messages

A/N: I wrote this in the same day I wrote chapter two!!! ::feels proud:: Saddly, I may not be able to get on-line to post it, so this probably won't come in untill the next day. Ah, well.  
  
Firebirth: Chapter Three  
  
Professor Xavier was not having a good dream. He was having a nightmare.  
In his dream, a man with bird like black hair and insane tattoos on his face to go with the look in his eyes held a orange pink crystal in his hand. He was laughing, and the stars around him seemed to be blinking and shifting; dieing and living, shattering and getting bigger.  
A voice filled his head. Though it was in a language he had never heard before in his life, he seemed to know what the female voice was saying.  
"Help us," it pleaded. "You are the only one! Please!" There was a break, as if there was a sob. "All of us, everything, including you will die!" There was a static sound, and a yell.  
"PLEASE!" The voice yelled louder.  
"HELP US! HELP YOURSELF!" There was a cry, and Charles Xavier woke with a start, sweat pouring from his face.  
A dream, He thought. A horrible dream...  
The same dream that he had been having for the past few wakes.  
Each night the dream seemed to get worse, more pleading. He was starting to wonder if it was a dream or a message.  
He got out of bed and into his wheelchair.  
He decided that it was time to pay a visit to an old doctor friend of his.  
  
Professor was on his way out when he caught a light in the kitchen. He wheeled himself in and found Hank McCoy, known as Beast, eating his weight in Twinkies.  
"Pwafesshor!" he said, mouth full of the food. He swallowed, and then repeated himself.  
"Professor!"  
Charles would of smiled if the dream hadn't been weighing his mind down so much.  
"I'm paying a visit to a friend in Muir Island," Charles said. "I'll be taking plane instead of the X-Jet. I hope you will pass the word on?"  
"Of course, Professor," said Hank. He frowned.  
"Might I ask you a question before you depart on your journey, dear Charles?" Hank asked.  
"Of course," said Xavier.  
"Why are you leaving in the middle of the night?"  
There was a long pause. The silence settled in and Hank began to fell uncomfortable.  
"The meeting," said Xavier, "would appear to be of much urgency."  
With that, he left.  
  
A/N: Kay, now chapter three is done! Sorry if it's so short, I'll try and make chapter four longer. Untill then, Ja ne! 


	4. Why Must People Leave?

A/N: Okay, sorry it took me so long to get the next chapter up. I was really busy (my mom kept making me go swimming with my little sister), so I wasn't able to write for a while. Anyway, here's the next chapter!  
  
Firebirth: Chapter Four  
  
Rouge set off to find to Professor. She posed in front of his door, ready to knock, when she felt a tap at her shoulder. She jumped. "Forgive my prying," Hank said, "but isn't time for you to be sleeping?" Rouge sighed, the shock from Dr. Hank McCoy's presence still lingering on her body. "Ah need ta' speak ta' tha Professah," Rouge said, clutching to book close to her chest. "Well," Hank said, "I am afraid to inform you that you just missed him. He left not but two minuets ago." "What???" Rouge asked furiously. She clenched her teeth. "Ah can't believe--!" she began. "Were did he go? Ah really need to speak with him!" "He went to Muir Island, for some R&R I would expect," Hank said. "What is it that you need to tell him so soon with such importance? I am sure that I can..." "It's nothin'," Rouge said, storming off. She was afraid that something bad was going to happen, and that it was going to be all her fault. No, she though, not MY fault. The Professor's fault for leaving! Rouge sighed and headed to her room. She decided that maybe it would be best if she got some sleep.  
  
A/N: I know, I know, it was really short. But I don't think that the next part of the story is going to fit well, So I had to cut it off here, even though it was a really crappy place to cut off, and it made this chapter suck. But I promise you, you're going to love the next chapter, and it's going to be really long! So rember to reveiw and maybe the chapter will come out faster! ::wink wink:: 


	5. Organ Harvest

A/N: Okay, as promised, here's my next chapter, extra-long. Enjoy!   
  
Chapter Five  
  
Rogue moaned softly as her alarm clock blared, calling her out of her sweet slumber and into the world of the living. Or none-sleeping. Take your pick.  
To her surprise, Kitty was still sound asleep when Rogue got up. Rogue frowned and decided to wake her up later if Kitty failed to get up after Rogue had gotten fully dress and put all her makeup on.  
After putting on her dark purple lipstick as a last finishing touch, Rogue looked over at Kitty, who was still sleeping. Rogue sighed, and walked over to her roomie's bed.  
"Kitty," Rogue said, nudging the long brown-haired girl's arm with her foot, "ya' need ta' wake if ya' wanna' get ta' school on time."  
Kitty moaned and swatted Rogue's foot away.  
"Don't need to get up," Kitty mumbled, flipping on to her other side, "no school today."  
"What do ya' mean?" Rogue asked, squatting down and blowing in Kitty's ear (knowing that it would annoy her). "It's Monday."  
"Yah," Kitty said, lifting up her arm and trying to shoo away the breath, "But it's, like, a school holiday."  
...  
"What???" Rogue asked, standing up.  
"Teacher work day, or something," Kitty mumbled, pulling her blanket over her and almost kicking her laptop off the bed. "Now can I go back to sleep?"  
"Whateva'," Rogue said, moaning and laying down on her bed.  
All that for nothing, she thought.  
  
"Wake up, wake up, Wake Up!!!" Kitty shrieked in Rogue's ear.  
"Go away," Rogue said, picking up her black pillow and lifting it up, a threat.  
"But, like, Logan and Ororo need us in the reck room!" Kitty said, taking the pillow from Rogue's hand and waving it around.  
"There's, like, something important on the TV, and, like, everyone has to, like, see it! So wake up and get up and let's, like, GO!" Kitty hit Rogue with the pillow, which probably wasn't a good idea, seeing that it got her a little upset.  
"I'm going!" Rogue mumbled, muttering under her breath and sliding off the bed as Kitty was practically jumping out the door and down the hallway.  
  
"Did you hear the news?"  
Tessa looked up from her computer screen and at the young British girl in the hallway. Betsy's forehead was creased with worry, and she was fidgeting.  
Tessa nodded. She was probably one of the first people in the Hellfire Club to find out what had happened.  
At a school, some student had attacked and killed a football player, ripping his eyes out. Then, at a school assembly, he went onto the stage and ranted about how he was going to get the "U-Men" to implant they eyes in his head, because the football player was apparently a mutant who had some sort of X-Ray vision.  
Eventually, he had been shot down by a firing squad, but the public was still shook up about it.  
The U-Men was a controversy. Were they better then mutants because they killed the Homo Superior? Or were they worse because they used the harvested organs on ordinary humans to make them mutants too?  
Tessa personally found the whole thing disgusting, but didn't say so.  
  
"Do you think we're safe?" Betsy asked. Tessa looked up, surprised.  
"We?" she asked.  
"Us mutants," Betsy said, looking nervously down the hallway.  
That's right, Tessa thought. Betsy's a mutant. Telepath, I think, who can do nothing greater then Mastermind can "Of course we're safe, here in the Hellfire Club," Tessa said. "Some of the most powerful mutants are here. Some silly 'U-Men' with their 'mutant harvesting tools' can't get to us. Not when we have a woman who can turn to diamond and a man who can create such great allusions that you think they're real." Betsy calmed down, but it was appeared that she was still a little frightened. "Do you know were my brother is?" she asked. Tessa nodded. "He's in a conference with some suppliers to the Hellfire Club, the Worthingtons, I think. But he should be out shortly," Tessa told the younger girl. Betsy nodded and left.  
  
"So what exactly are we all gathered around the TV for?" Rogue asked to no one in particular, not liking the cramped arrangements. All the X-Men and New Recruits were gathered around in the same room; and though it was big, Rogue still didn't like being around so many people at once. Especially since so many of them were talking, and the volume in the room was getting deafening, almost like being in an Elementary School cafeteria.  
"Quite down, students," Ororo Munroe said. No one appeared to listen.  
"Students, you heard Ms. Munroe," Hank said. "Quite down." Apparently, no one had heard Ororo or Hank.  
"You ain't doin' it right, bub," Logan said. He let out a loud whistle. Every one looked at him.  
"Now," he said. "Thanks fur quieting down. Now, tha' next person ta' talk is gunna have four o'clock Danger Room sessions with me every Saturday fur a month."  
From that point on, no one said a word.  
"Thank you, Logan," Ororo said, walking over to the TV and turning it on. "Some of you need to see this. Jean, in case some of the footage is a little to much for the younger students to take, I want you to block them out of their minds."  
"Yes m'am," Jean replied automatically.  
I wonder were the Professor is? Jean thought as she put up a mental block in all the younger recruits minds that would block out any image that they would find disturbing. It had taken her a while to learn such control, and the shield might collapse, but it that was so, Jean could always erase the image.  
The TV image flickered, and then filled with the face of reporter Trish Tibley for NYBC.  
"Isn't that the reporter that Hank's got a crush on?" quipped Bobby from the back of the room, getting a glare from all the adults for interrupting, and a few chuckles from some of the students.  
Logan walked over to him, sat down, and whispered, "See ya' Saturday, bub."  
Bobby gulped, and Jubilee's face turned red from trying to hold in laughter. Rogue, who had turned around to see the whole thing, turned back to face foreword, and rolled her eyes.  
"Hello," said the friendly voice of Trish Tibley, who tucked a piece of jet-black hair behind her ear that had a respectably sized pearl in the lobe.  
"This is Trish Tibley reporting for NYBC, were just seconds ago a teenage adolescent murdered a fellow student."  
"So, what does this, like, have to do with us?" Kitty whispered to Rogue. Rogue glared and put a gloved finger to her lips.  
Trish began to walk across a lawn of a school, a completely serious look on her face.  
"Here at the Massachusetts School that will go unnamed until further investigations, the principal was having another school assembly for drug prevention."  
The screen flickered from Trish's face to a taping of the assembly.  
"Fortunately, they were taping it at the time, so we have real footage of the incident. Younger children and pregnant woman may want to look away, for some of the footage is very disturbing. Our technicians have somewhat edited the footage so you can tell what the people are saying."  
The teens of the Xavier Institute shifted.  
Great, most of them thought. Another mutant attack. Like this is going to help us any.  
The principal walked up to the stage, shaking an old lady's hand. The woman sat down, and he began to talk about how drugs were bad, and how they ruined people's life; things that every teen hears at school at most assemblies.  
Suddenly, there was some yelling from off stage, and the camera swung to show another student wearing a t-shirt with the picture of Magneto on it. There was blood spattered on it, and his left hand was clenched around something.  
He yelled something, which came up as captions on the bottom of the screen.  
"Hey, freaks! You all remember your dear football player, Jason, right?" He opened his palm.  
"Is that...?" asked Bobby, wide eyed. Jean grimaced.  
It was two eyeballs, pulled out of someone's sockets.  
Rahne whimpered, and Jean's mind shield kicked in, blocking the images from the people who couldn't take it.  
"That's really, like, gross," said Kitty, looking more frightened then disgusted. The teen on the screen waved the eyes around.  
"He was a freak! Could see through things!" He pointed at the audience of shocked students.  
"And I was thinking, why can't we normal people be like the freaks? Huh? You all laughed at me for reading comic books and watching anime! But look who's laughing now!" The kid let out a hearty laugh that nearly mimicked one of a mad scientist.  
"This...this is horrible," Scott said.  
"I'm gunna take this to the U-Men and they're gunna put these baby blues in my head! And then no girl in the hall will be safe from me!" He laughed again. "That's right! I'm gunna be a U-Man! So you freaks watch out! Us U-Men are gunna come and harvest your powers, and your children's powers and..."  
He stopped talking and passed out. A bullet had flown though his head, splattering the old woman behind him with blood. She let out a scream and ducked, afraid that another shot would be fired at her.  
The camera swung again, this time aiming at the person who had fired the shot. It was a S.W.A.T. member, and he did not look happy about killing the teen.  
The background went dim, and the horrific scene was replaced with Trish Tibley's serious face.  
"As you can see, the situation is bad. This is not the first person that has mentioned the U-Men. Another teen, this one a mutant, named Martha, had left a note in her own luminescent blood saying simply that 'the U-Men took her'. At first it was believed that she was simply a run away; now it appears to be much, much more then that."  
Trish turned and looked at the school.  
"Who is the U-Men? We are unsure. But police say that they may be linked to a book that talks about the same ideas as the teen; Humans harvesting the organs of mutants that would give them their power and then implanting it in themselves. No matter what side of the mutant threat, it is sure that the U-Men are something to be reckoned with."  
Ororo turned the TV off with the press of a button from her remote control. She looked at the students.  
"Zey had to call uz a threat," Kurt said finally, sighing.  
"Doesn't everyone call us a threat?" Wolverine asked, sighing.  
"And we would think Hank's beloved Trish would never do such a thing," Bobby said with a sigh, trying to lighten the mood.  
It didn't work.  
Instead, everyone turned and glared at him, even Jubilee.  
"What?" he asked. No one replied.  
"Has anyone told tha' Professah 'bout this?" Rogue asked.  
"I would think he already knows," Jean said. "Considering he isn't here." Jean frowned. "Were is the Professor anyway?"  
"He went to Muir Island for a little R&R," Hank said, repeating what he had told Rogue. Some of the students were getting up to leave, and half of them were already gone.  
"An' he dinnie tell me?" asked Rahne. She pouted. "I would o' liked ta' see Mora again. I do miss 'er."  
"I am sure that he will take you next time, Wolfsbane," Hank said. "I will alert him of the situation as soon as I can, if he has not already heard."  
Jean nodded and the rest of the students filed out. Rogue was the last to leave. She turned and opened her mouth to say something, then frowned, and left.  
  
"Doesn't seem like Chuck ta' up an' leave without tellin' tha' rest of us," Wolverine said after everyone had left. Hank shrugged.  
"Was there anything different about the Professor before he left that we should know about?" asked Strom curiously, folding her hands in front of her. Hank shook his head.  
"Not that I know of," he said. "But he did seem a little shaken up."  
"Do you think it's somethin' 'bout his powers?" Wolverine asked.  
"I am not sure," Hank said. "Whatever it was, he wished to keep it to himself." They all exchanged looks.  
"I better work on contacting the Professor," Hank said finally.  
  
A/N: O.O;;; That was alot longer then I thought it would be. Anyway, the next chapter may or may not be a little short, I dunno yet. Stay tuned and remeber to review!!! 


	6. Death and Life

**A/N and Disclaimer: I no own. Sorry if it took so long.**

**Firebirth: Chapter Six**

"LET ME GO!"

The scream was loud and pleading, full of tears. There was a thud and the victim was pushed to the floor.

"We're very sorry for this, Martha," said a voice in the darkness.

Martha looked up, tears staining her face. She was naked save for a white blanket that she clutched around her protectively. Her head that was once covered in blonde hair was shaved, shining in the slight light. There was a line drawn around her scalp in permanent marker.

"Who are you?" she asked, her voice hoarse.

"You already know that, Martha," said the man in the darkness. "We're the U-Men."

"Please," she said, sobbing. "Please let me go...I want to go home. Please, let me go home!"

"We can't do that, Martha," said the man, the shadows enveloping him. "Restrain her and begin the harvest," he said to the men who had brought Martha in.

"No!" she said. "No, no, no, no, no, NO! LET ME GO!"

Her blue eyes began to glow, and the first U-Man that had touched her let out a scream, falling backwards. The other one yanked the first U-Man's helmet off, to reveal blood trickling down his nose and eyes and ears.

"What did that mutie do to him!?" The U-Man asked, looking to the man in the shadows, his leader, for help.

"She exploded his brain, to put it bluntly," the man said, his voice tinged with the amazement of her power; and the knowing that her power would soon be his.

"Damn..." the U-Man said, looking at the crumpled figure of Martha, who was on the cold floor, sobbing. The man in the shadows handed him a syringe filled with tranquilizer.

"Restrain her," the man said dryly, his eyes still on Martha and not the U-Man. The leather clad solider gave out a 'yes sir' and approached Martha.

"Please," she cried. "Stay away from me!"

She tried to fight him off, but he stuck the needle into her before she could do any real damage. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and her stare became blank. The U-Man helped her stand and walked her over to an operation table, which she did without argue.

"Don't..." she managed to say, right before she blacked out.

Right before she died.

"I am honored dat you called on Remy, Tessa, to steal dis...ah, what is it again? Oh, I forgot - - _book_. I truly am but," the Cajun gave her a smile, "Remy don't steal dem kind o' t'ings."

Tessa sighed. She had gotten out of Hellfire uniform for the first time in months, and all for nothing.

"Remy, I was assured by this Bella Donna person that you are the best and..." Tessa began.

"Who?" The Cajun asked. His seemed to be out of his cocky mood, and his voice was tinged with several different emotions that Tessa wasn't surprised to hear.

Nothing surprised her.

"Bella Donna," Tessa said. "I suspect you know her?"

"You could say dat," Remy said, leaning back in his seat. They were in a seedy bar, and if Tessa was a normal person she would of wondered why the teen got it. But she was not a normal person, and she knew it was because the teen was a lot more sly then people knew.

A silence passed between the two, until finally Tessa spoke.

"Are you taking the job or not?" Tessa said.

"...Bella said I would?" Remy asked.

"She did."

Another silence.

"Fine," Remy said. "But I hope you be payin' Remy a lot for dis job."

"Oh, trust me," Tessa said, a smile slipping onto her face. "You will."

"Charles," Moira asked. "Ye wanna tell me what this is o'bout?"

Mora was one of those women who was in the prim of her life, but still managed to look beautiful. She was Scottish and had the grass green eyes that said it. Her hair was short and brown, set into a stylish cut that curved the ends under her chin. She had on a bright yellow shirt and tan slacks with a white lab coat thrown over it.

Charles Xavier had just arrived on Muir Island, which was owned by Dr. Mattarget, and he had a little jet lag. Even though the plane had been set on Autopilot, he hadn't slept the whole time.

"Can we talk about it tomorrow, Moira, old friend?" Xavier asked, the stress showing in his voice. Moira paused, her lipstick-free lips in a little 'o', but she said nothing. Finally she nodded.

"Of course," she said. "'Tis good to see you, after all, Charles."

Xavier wheeled forward, but was stopped by the Doctor again.

"Dinna ya' bring 'ney bags?" She asked.

"I...yes," Xavier said, surprised that he had almost forgotten them.

"I should go get them," Xavier began.

"No, no," Moira said. "Me an' Sean will get them. Ye go rest."

"...Sean?" Xavier asked. Moira's eyes widened.

"Charles..." she said, taken aback. "I...I though ye knew..." Xavier lifted an eyebrow.

"Sean...Sean is me boyfriend," Moira said, her eyes saying she was sorry.

"Ah," Xavier said, his eyes saying that she shouldn't be. "I'm glad that you are happy again, then, Moira." He offered her a light smile and she returned it.

"Let me show you to your room," Moira said.

**A/N: Really short, but review anyway to let me know that there are still people out there that read my boring-as-hell crap.**


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